Editing Hertford College, Oxford (section)

=== Hart Hall ===
[[File:UK-2014-Oxford-Hertford College 01.jpg|thumb|left|The drinking hart with motto as above the modern main gate of Hertford College]]
The first Hertford College began life as '''Hart Hall''' (''Aula Cervina'') in the 1280s, a small [[tenement]] built roughly where the college's Old Hall is today, a few paces along [[New College Lane]] on the southern side.<ref name="auto">{{Cite news|url=https://www.hertford.ox.ac.uk/and-more/college-history|title=Hertford history - Hertford College {{!}} University of Oxford|work=Hertford College {{!}} University of Oxford|access-date=2018-07-26|language=en-GB}}</ref> In medieval Oxford, [[academic halls of the University of Oxford|academic halls]] were primarily lodging houses for students and resident tutors.{{citation needed|date=March 2021}}

The original tenement, mentioned in the deed of 1283, which was bought by Elias de Hertford from Walter de Grendon, mercer, lay between a tenement of the university (Blackhall) on the west, and a tenement of the Prioress of Studley on the east. In the deed by which Elias de Hertford sells it to John de Dokelynton in 1301, this last tenement is called Micheldhall.  The deed was made over to his son, also Elias, in 1301. The name of the hall was likely a humorous reduction of the name of its founder's [[Hertford|home town]], and allowed for the use of the symbol of a [[hart (deer)|hart]] to be used for identification.{{citation needed|date=March 2021}}

At that time, New College Lane was known as Hammer Hall Lane (named after a hall to the east, as [[New College, Oxford|New College]] had not then been founded), and its northern side was the old town wall. The corner of Hammer Hall Lane and [[Catte Street]] (which had a [[postern]] in the wall called Smithgate) was taken by Black Hall, which was the place of [[John Wycliffe]]'s imprisonment by the Vice-Chancellor around 1378. On the other side of Hart Hall along the lane was Shield Hall. On Catte Street itself was the entrance to Arthur Hall, which lay down a narrow passage behind Hart Hall, and Cat Hall (''Aula Murilegorum''), which stood further south, roughly where the Principal's Lodgings now stand.<ref name=Hamilton>{{cite book |title=Hertford College |url=https://archive.org/details/hertfordcollege00hamirich |last=Hamilton |first=Sidney Graves |year=1903 |publisher=F.E. Robinson |location=London|ol=23303320M}}</ref>{{rp|pp. 1–3}}

The younger Elias sold on Hart Hall (named in this deed as 'le Herthalle') after a month to a wealthy local fishmonger John of Ducklington, who, seven years later, bought Arthur Hall and annexed it to Hart Hall. In 1312, John sold the two halls to [[Walter de Stapledon]], [[Bishop of Exeter]], who desired to found a college. After just over a year, Stapledon moved his scholars to a larger site that he had purchased on [[Turl Street]], which became Stapledon Hall, later [[Exeter College, Oxford|Exeter College]]. However, Exeter College retained certain rights over Hart Hall, with which it plagued the hall's development for centuries.<ref name=Hamilton />{{rp|pp. 3–5}}

In 1379, Hart Hall and Black Hall were rented by [[William of Wykeham]] as a temporary home for his scholars as his [[New College, Oxford|New College]], to the east along what became New College Lane, was being built. The first two Wardens of New College also appear as Principals of Hart Hall. Until the 17th century, there is evidence of scholars (including [[Thomas Ken]]) [[matriculation|matriculating]] at Hart Hall while waiting for a vacancy at New College. By this time, it appears that Shield Hall had been partly taken over by Hart Hall and partly demolished to make way for New College's [[cloister]]. Although Black Hall continued a separate existence, its principal was often the same as Hart Hall's. In 1490, Hart Hall is described as having a library, which was unusual for a hall. In 1530, Hart Hall annexed Black Hall also. For some time, Cat Hall was leased by [[All Souls College, Oxford|All Souls College]], and then by Exeter College, until it also was subsumed into the growing Hart Hall early in the 16th century, giving the hall most of the land around what is today its Old Quadrangle.<ref name=Hamilton />{{rp|pp. 6–10}}

In the latter half of the 16th century, Hart Hall became known as a refuge for Catholic [[Recusancy|recusants]], particularly under Philip Randell as principal (1548–1599). Because of its connection with Exeter College and that college's increasing [[puritanism]], a number of Exeter's tutors and scholars migrated to Hart Hall. The hall attracted an increasing number of Catholics from further afield, including the [[Society of Jesus|Jesuit]] tutor [[Richard Holtby]] in 1574, who was instrumental in the conversion of his student, and later Jesuit martyr and saint, [[Alexander Briant]] to Catholicism. Coming from a Catholic family, the English poet [[John Donne]] came up to Hart Hall in 1584.<ref name=Hamilton />{{rp|pp. 18–21}}

[[File:Hertford_College,_Oxford._Etching_by_J._Whessall_after_himse_Wellcome_V0014114.jpg|thumb|The Catte Street gate, before 1820]]

Hart Hall expanded and new buildings were put up. In the early 17th century, the current [[Common Room (university)|Senior Common Room]] was built as lodgings for the principal. From this period also, the main entrance of the hall moved from being a narrow passage off New College Lane to a gate on Catte Street. By the late 17th century, Cat Hall is described as being used as 'the ball-court of Hart Hall'. In the latter part of the 17th century, the principal, [[William Thornton (academic)|William Thornton]], provided a proper gate for the Catte Street entrance of the hall, and decorated with a device of a drinking hart with the [[motto]] {{smallcaps|Sicut cervus anhelat ad fontes aquarum}} ('As the hart panteth after the water brooks', taken from [[Psalm 42]], verse 1, but in a peculiar translation). Although the current gatehouse is not Thornton's original, it retains the design and motto, and houses the original decorated gates. It has been suggested that this frieze with its Latin motto is the real counterpart of the one translated for the waiting crowd by the title character of [[Thomas Hardy]]'s ''[[Jude the Obscure]]''.<ref>{{cite book|first=Denys|last=Kay-Robinson|title=The Landscape of Thomas Hardy|publisher=Webb and Bower|year=1984|page=173}}</ref>

In 1692, the political satirist [[Jonathan Swift]] was incorporated from [[Trinity College, Dublin]], on the books of Hart Hall to receive his MA.<ref name=Hamilton />{{rp|pp. 26–38}}